Muriel Spark's World Of 'Infinite Possibilities'

Muriel Spark, woman writer of Scotland, is one of the most important novelists of the postwar period. As was Graham Greene, she was entitled 'Catholic writer' . She distinguished herself among her contemporaries by her supernatural, mystical, while realistic novella. More and more critical interest has been generated by her works. Most of the critical comments focus on the experimentality in form and the religious aspect of theme, exploring text' s ultimate meaning within a religious frame. This thesis finds that, actually, what Muriel Spark embraces in Catholicism is its inclusiveness and tolerance of difference. Muriel Spark' s thought of anti-totalitarianism and her neutral 'Nevertheless' principle coincide with the post-modern view of anti-centralism and deconstruct ion of power. Muriel Spark displays in her works a sense of 'hidden possibilities' .The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the most renowned one of Spark' s novella. Postmodernism influences both writing and reading. It is this thesis' s aim to explore the 'infinite possibilities' in Muriel Spark' s fictional world.The first part of this thesis attempts an intertextual reading of the novel. Muriel Spark was dubbed by some critic as 'Jane Austin of the surrealists' , for the world in her novel is always the delimited and isolated one. Through an intertextual reading, the marginal discourses of religion, culture of Edinburgh, author' s autobiography and history background of the world war, all together break up the central status of the story world.The second part of my thesis concerns the narrative characteristics of the novel. Nouveau roman' s influence disrupts the linearity of narrative in the text. Analepsis stands side by side with prolepsis. So, reading through the novel is just like finding way out in a maze, with no answer waiting out at the exit. The third person omniscient narrator plays the role of a silent God, grudging any comment when expected. Thus, simple and unidimensional interpretation is checked.Another important narrative character of this novel is repetition, which ranges from verbal level to character and theme. Discussion of repetition in part three of the thesis has the purpose to lift the singleness and simpleness of textualinterpretation.The whole thesis is divided into five parts. Part I is the introduction of the thesis. Part II offers the intertextual reading of the text. Part III analyses the narrative traits of the novel. Part IV discusses repetition in the novel. Part V is the conclusion.